Physio 8

So I went for my 8th treatment on Sunday. Due to my physiotherapist's schedule, I went 4 weeks after my last treatment. I should have scheduled one for an earlier date...

This time we focused on my sacrum bone again. This is causing my spine to curve irregularly and as a result, causing my muscles to stretch, tighten and restrict my movements.

You can see the vertebrae near the middle are not overlapping

This is what my spine looks like from the side and from above. Curved more than it should be. So, I don't like sleeping on my back for too long and I tend to favor sleeping on my right side.

Pretty freaky, eh?

My left bone of the sacrum is titled forward and the right is in its normal position. This makes the base of my spine jut out and to balance that, the rest of my spine curves and pulls the muscles out of place to maintain this hyper extended spine. As my spine hyper extends, the joints no longer overlap so movement becomes restricted. That is why I can't curl my spine so that I can get into a curled ball position.

As my spine is stretched out, the muscles supporting are also stretched out. But the muscles layering on top of it show a different story. As you may know, the body has a layer of muscles. In my case, the inner most layer along the spine is all stretched out. But the next layer of muscles above it on the right near the top and base of the spine are tight. Whereas the ones on the left are loose. The center muscles on the right are loose and the ones on the left are tight. So, my left shoulder blade moves more than my right and my left side has a bit more mobility than my right side. My left shoulder is at a normal height but my right shoulder is pulled upward.

So not only are the muscles on my back not in their right positions, but as a result, my muscles in my neck and the ones attached to my skull are being pulled. I mentioned this in my previous entry (Physio 7) but I didn't have a photo so here it is. The muscles on the right side in particular are pulled tight so the left side of my neck bones are compressed and my the right side of my skull is a bit shifted (apparently, my laugh line on my right is higher than the left...). 

So if my muscles are tight and pulling upwards, obviously the muscles connected to my rib cage are also pulled tight and upwards. So, my rib cage is in a higher position than normal so my lungs can't expand as largely as they should be able to and because I depend on my lungs so much I don't know how to use my diaphragm when breathing... As a result, I have an enlarged and cramped upper body cavity with a shorter neck and hunched shoulders...

To think this all started with the problem in my sacrum bone...
This isn't going to get better over night or in just two treatments. For the next half year, we plan to work on these areas and work on the arms at the same time. We'll get to the legs maybe later in the year!!